Sooyoung’s POV:

After Sunny-unnie left, I went to the mini-fridge that was in the corner of my room and opened it. I pouted as I realized that they don’t give food for free since the fridge was empty.

I sighed and decided to go take my nap. I went under the covers and praised how soft the bed was, it even smelled good. I laid still on my right side staring at my wall for a good few seconds, then switched to lay on my back. But as I stared at the ceiling, I realized I was waay too excited to sleep.

I stood up, opened my luggage and dug out a nice black shoulder bag. I put my wallet, a room key, and a map inside and put the bag around me. I checked my teeth in the mirror, and walked outside, remembering to lock the door.

I took out the map and started to think where I should explore first. Sunny took me on a tour, but it was only to my classes and talked about the rules, if they had any, and also to the cafeteria. As we finished the tour, I realized that she only covered the important places, and I didn’t get to see the places that I wanted to see. I told her that, but she said she knew I was going to explore on my own anyway, so she didn’t bother.

Finally as I picked a place that I would probably be spending a lot of time at, a growl was heard. I turned to look around if anyone heard that, but fortunately nobody else was in the hallway at that time.

I scratched my head, looked at the time and saw that it was 12 in the afternoon. “No matter where I am, my stomach seems to be able to find the right timing for meals.” She made fun of herself as she giggled lightly. “I have an internal alarm for food.” She laughed as she pressed the elevator button.

Author’s POV:

Reaching the cafeteria:

Sooyoung walked through the entrance and was immediately welcomed with different scents of foods being served. She grinned giddily as she walked to a short random line, not caring what kind of food she was in line for, she just wanted something to eat as soon as possible.

“Welcome…” A girl employee looked up and was overwhelmed by the beauty of the girl, which she hasn’t seen before, in front of her.  

“Hi.” Sooyoung said oblivious, and smiling happily about food. She didn’t notice the mesmerized employee and kept her attention on the food.

The employee gulped and cleared . “H-Hi, would you like a k-kimbap or a bi-bibimbap?” She stuttered as felt her face heat up at seeing the girl smile.

Sooyoung just kept smiling as she took the time to think about what she wanted. “Mhmm…What would you suggest?” She finally took notice of the girl and saw that her face was red “Hey, you look a bit flushed.” She reached over the counter and touched the employee’s arm. “Are you feeling okay?” The short haired girl asked the employee, who nodded frantically.

“I-I’m fine.” The employee answered abruptly, seemingly looking redder by the second. Sooyoung put her hand back to her side of the counter, and raised an eyebrow at the weird behavior of the employee.

“O…kay, I’ll just get the bibimbap.” She looked worriedly at the employee, who nodded and prepared a bowl of bibimbap for the tall short haired girl.

“Here you go.” The employee held it out, and also managed to look less red.

“How much is it?” Sooyoung asked as she was fishing for her wallet in her purse.

The employee shook her head, “It’s free when you eat here for the first time.”

Sooyoung’s jaw dropped, but then a second later, a wide grin from the taller girl made the employee start blushing again. “Really?!”

The employee nodded, and Sooyoung took the bowl, shook the girl’s hand and a smile still showing on her face.

She walked around the cafeteria, looking for a free table. She found a table where there were more than a few seats that were vacant. Sooyoung walked up to the group and politely asked, “You don’t mind if I sit on that end of the table, do you?” while pointing at the empty seats at the end of the table.

The girls were surprised to see a new and also an incredibly pretty face. They shook their head, not one person was able to speak.

By the time Sooyoung sat down, whispers started as they noticed the tall beauty that seemed to be new. They thought that surely someone so pretty wouldn’t be ignored by anyone so she had to be new, but they were still clueless on what Sooyoung was doing there, because the school year had already started. No one has been a transfer so far, so they assumed that Sooyoung was a first year. Though everyone suspected her to be a freshman, she still had a pretty overwhelming aura, which made people cautious about approaching her.

In Sooyoung’s point of view, she thought that since she was new, nobody would probably want to sit with her, so she internally sulked at the thought that she may be a loner for a few days.

But there seemed to be a courageous group of first years as they decided to befriend the new girl. They thought that since they were first years like what they assumed Sooyoung to be, that they should sympathize with her and become friendly. Even if they felt her overwhelming aura. There were five of them, the person that seemed to be the leader tapped Sooyoung’s shoulder, “Excuse me…”

Sooyoung turned around and saw the girls staring at her, she politely smiled. “Yes?” In her mind, she thought, ’I hope they’re not here to shoo me off this table…That would be embarrassing.’

The leader-girl spoke up, “Hi, I’m Irene…Can we sit with you?” Everyone in the cafeteria were watching Sooyoung’s actions with rapt attention.

Sooyoung’s smile grew to be more genuine, she was happy that they were nice enough to sit with a loner like herself. She nodded and held out her hand. “Choi Sooyoung.”

The five girls that were that were standing in front of Sooyoung swooned at the smile, like pretty much everyone else in the cafeteria.

Irene quickly shook out of her dazed state from Sooyoung’s smile, and took the offered hand with a smile. “N-Nice to meet you, Sooyoung-ssi.”

“Nice to meet you too. No need to be formal.” Sooyoung grinned cutely at the girls, and gestured for them to sit down at the table. The girls were all blushing from the grin that was directed towards them, and clumsily sat at the table. Sooyoung internally giggled at their clumsiness.

As soon as all five girls sat down, Sooyoung looked at the unnamed girls, “What are your names?”

“I’m Joy.” A girl that seemed to represent her name really well, but her cheeks were slightly tinted with pink. Sooyoung smiled and looked at the other members.

“S-Seulgi.” A girl that reminded Sooyoung of a combination of Dara and CL, from her favorite girl group, 2ne1.

“Wendy.” An energetic girl said as she grinned.

“Yeri…” The last girl said with a quiet and shy voice.

Sooyoung looked at all of them with a nice smile, and bowed her head. “It’s nice to meet you all.”

All five girls smiled back, with tints of pink on all of their cheeks. To Sooyoung, it was sort of adorable, how shy they seemed, but had been nice enough to talk to her.

“So…” Sooyoung started as she broke the silence. “What made you guys want to sit with a loner like me?”

The energetic girl smiled, “Since we are first years too, we thought that we should become friends with you.”

“That’s really nice of you!” Sooyoung grinned, but suddenly frowned and tilted her head at what Wendy said. “First years…too?”

Joy nodded, “You’re a first year too, right?”

Sooyoung shook her head slowly. “Um…no…I’m a second year…transfer.”

“A transfer?!” All five girls simultaneously said, with Joy and Wendy standing up.

Gasps were heard, and the whispering started again. They all heard what the two girls said, and are currently gossiping about Sooyoung.

Sooyoung’s eyes widened and she gently pulled the two girls to sit back down. “Please, sit down. I didn’t think it’d be that much of a shock.”

Joy and Wendy blushed and smiled sheepishly. “Sorry.”

Sooyoung smiled amused at the younger girls. “It’s okay.”

“Wow…I heard they don’t take transfers here. I heard that girls that are supposed to be second years auditioned, but the officials made them go back a year and become first years.” Yeri said amazed.

“They don’t…” Seulgi said, “I guess not until now.”

Sooyoung sheepishly smiled and blushed. “It’s not that big of deal.”

Seulgi commented, “That explains your aura.”

Sooyoung raised an eyebrow, “My aura?”

The younger girls nodded. “Yeah, I’m pretty sure everybody thought you were a first year too, but you had some sort of intimidating aura around you,” Wendy replied.

 “That’s why people don’t want to sit with me?” Sooyoung said as she frowned.

The five girls giggled at the older girl’s cute frown. “Why did you think they were avoiding you?” Seulgi asked.

Sooyoung shrugged. “But since you already befriended me, you can’t be intimidated by me anymore.” She said with a smile. “But…” She raised a finger and playfully pointed at each girl, “I still want proper respect from all of you.”

The girls giggled, but nodded.

“Are you guys doing anything after lunch?” Sooyoung asked with a smile.

The girls smiled excitedly. “We have classes, and were excited for them.”

“Why is that?” Sooyoung asked as she looked on with amusement.

“We have choir 101.” Joy said with an eager smile.

Sooyoung giggled at their excitement. “You guys have fun, then. I’m going to go explore.” She stood up from the table, and waved with a wide smile. “Remember, we’re friends now! See you guys, later!”

She put her bowl with the other dirty dishes and exited the cafeteria.

In the Cafeteria:

After the newfound information about the new tall beauty, the topic of Sooyoung escalated even further.

A girl with long wavy brown hair turned to her black short-haired friend. “Hey Sulli, I think she was lying.”

The black short-haired friend replied, “Why would she be lying? Besides Suzy, she looked completely clueless about the whole thing.”

“What are you guys talking about?” A tall blonde girl arrived with a tray full of food.

“Hey Yoona-unnie, we were talking about the new student.” Sulli answered her senior.

“The new student?” Yoona smirked. “The news spreads so fast.”

Suzy spoke up, “Unnie, the academy only gets new students in the beginning of the year so it’s pretty shocking when someone comes to the school a month after school started.”

Yoona nodded, “True…” She smiled, “I met her, she’s pretty nice.”

“Really?” Suzy asked interested in the new student.

“Yeah, she was lost this morning so I helped her, I found out that she was a transfer.” Yoona said still doubtful.

“Do you think she could have lied to you too?” Sulli asked Yoona.

The blonde girl shrugged, “We’ll know when she starts going to class, if she’s a transfer student then she’ll probably be in classes that are for second years, if she’s lying then we’ll definitely see.”

“Do you think she acts?” Sulli asked both girls.

“Well…she surely looked like an actress…but you never know.” Yoona said shrugging with a small smile.

Back to Sooyoung:

After leaving the cafeteria, she got distracted and aimlessly walked around, but after half an hour of walking to nowhere she decided to actually go to certain places.

Sooyoung took out her map. “Now that I’m full…” She looks it over. “I shall look for my peace place.”

“Peace place?” An amused voice behind her asked peeking over her shoulder, looking at her map.

Sooyoung turned around, surprised at the voice behind her, and dropped her map. Sooyoung flushed in surprise as she found herself talking to another pretty girl. She suddenly remembered the first pretty girl she saw, Yoona, a blonde girl that was about her height. But this blonde girl in front of her was shorter, and not only her height but also her hair.

The short-haired blonde girl chuckled lightly, and smirked as she picked up the dropped map. “I’m guessing from this map, that you’re new?”

 The taller girl sheepishly smiled. “Yeah, I just arrived today.”

“Ah~ So, you’re the transfer that I’ve heard about.” The blonde girl smiled.

“Huh? I’ve only been here for a few hours, how could that get around so quick?” Sooyoung’s eyes widened in surprise.

The blonde girl softly chuckled. “As I’m sure you might have already heard if you’ve talked to people here, we don’t really get transfers. You’re the first.”

“I’ve heard.” Sooyoung shook her head in disbelief, remembering how many times she has seen people be surprise or doubtful that she was actually a transfer. “Anyway, my name is Choi Sooyoung.”

“Kim Hyoyeon, nice to meet you.” She grinned at Sooyoung as she crumpled up the map and perfectly scored it into a trash can.

“Hey! What was that for? I needed that!!” Sooyoung shouted, and frowned at Hyoyeon.

“You don’t need it.” Hyoyeon said.

“Why not?” Sooyoung’s eyebrows scrunched together as she tilted her head slightly to the side.

“Because I’ll be your map for the day.” The blonde girl said as she wiggled her eyebrows, and grinned widely at the taller girl.

Sooyoung giggled softly and smiled. “Then I’d like that very much.”

Hyoyeon gestured for her to start walking. “Shall we milady?”

Sooyoung laughed as she replied. “We shall.”

“So peace place?” Hyoyeon asked as they walked side by side through hallways.

Sooyoung softly chucked at the name she made up for her favorite place. “At my old school, I always had a place where it was just always me and no one else. It was usually the place that people don’t go to. My peace place. I usually go there to sleep, to practice singing or maybe dancing.”

Hyoyeon perked up at the word dancing but decided to bring it up later. “So where is your peace place?” 

Sooyoung sheepishly smiled, “I actually have two, the roof and the garden.”

Hyoyeon smiled. “Then those places are perfect for you.”

“How come?” Sooyoung asked curiously.

Hyoyeon shrugged. “No one really comes to those places, because this academy is made for dancing, singing and other fine arts, students just go to practice rooms and stuff like that here. And though the garden is incredibly beautiful, no one likes to come, I have no idea why.”

Sooyoung smiled and nodded. “Seems like a perfect peace place for me.”

Hyoyeon smiled back. “So I guess we’ll head to the garden first?”

Sooyoung nodded excitedly. Hyoyeon grinned and jumped up as she did a fist pump. “Let’s go~!!” She started to run. Sooyoung laughed and ran after the shorter girl.

Arriving at the Garden:

Sooyoung stopped running and bent over with her hands on her knees trying to catch her breath, while the blonde girl, still filled with energy, run playfully around her once.

“We’re here.” Hyoyeon said gleefully.

“This is your garden?…I mean it’s very beautiful, but is it just stairs leading to the woods?” Sooyoung asked filled with mixed feeling. The flowers looked very pretty, but if this was all to their garden she would probably have to stay on the roof most of the time.

Hyoyeon softly chuckled and shook her head. “Actually, no…This is just the stairs that lead to the garden…Come on.” She took Sooyoung’s hand with a smirk and quickly went up the stairs, gently dragging Sooyoung with her.

“This…is the garden.” Hyoyeon unconsciously held onto Sooyoung’s hand, as she looked at the beautiful garden.

“Wow…” Sooyoung didn’t notice either as she softly smiled at the beautiful place.

Sooyoung walked, dragging Hyoyeon with her, towards the pathway to the gazebo. Glancing at the bright flowers along the pathway, she made her way to the gazebo.

Inside the gazebo, it looked comfortable and cozy, yet very spacious. There was a couch-like seat attached to the wall of the gazebo, it looked very soft, and it even had two or three cushions.

“You were right. This place is perfect for me.” Sooyoung smiled warmly at Hyoyeon, but the blonde girl was looking at their hands. She also looked down, and finally noticed that they were still holding hands. She blushed and let Hyoyeon’s hand go. “S-Sorry…”

Hyoyeon smirked at Sooyoung’s blush, “It’s okay, I don’t mind holding a pretty girl’s hand.” She grinned playfully at Sooyoung.

Sooyoung smiled but there was a small tint of pink on her cheeks.

Hyoyeon cleared , “So although this garden is very beautiful, no one really thinks to go here…I’m not even sure anyone knows about this place.” Hyoyeon sheepishly smiled, “I actually almost directed you somewhere else, because I forgot about this place.”

“That makes it even more perfect.” Sooyoung grinned. “At my old school in Japan, I used to come to garden only to study in peace, because although no one was usually there, there would be times that people were there too. That’s usually when I decide to go to the roof, to dance and sing, because on the roof, it was more certain that no one was going to be there.”

“So you don’t like singing in front of people?” Hyoyeon asked, intrigued because Sooyoung would be in the wrong school if she didn’t like singing in front of people. It’s not the organization she’s in, but she knows people from the choir classes have to sing in front of each other all the time.

Sooyoung shook her head, “It’s not that I don’t like singing in front of people, it’s just sometimes nicer to be by myself when I want to just sing my heart out, angrily or happily.” She said with a playful smile.

Hyoyeon nodded as she amusedly smiled at Sooyoung. “You’re a second year, right?”

Sooyoung nodded, “What about you?”

Hyoyeon grinned, “I’m the unnie.”

“But you’re so short~” Sooyoung grinned as she stuck out her tongue.

“Yah, yah, yah. You better give your senior respect missy.” Hyoyeon said with a playful grin.

“Yes ma’am.” Sooyoung nodded but smiled widely at her new found friend.

-Ringtone-

Hyoyeon smiled and Sooyoung. “Hold on. I gotta take this.”

While Hyoyeon went to take her call, Sooyoung sat and just admired the garden and the inside of the gazebo. “This is way too nice…” She mumbled.

“What is?” Hyoyeon asked as she came back from her call.

“The garden and the gazebo.” Sooyoung smiled gently at the older girl, which in turn caused the blonde girl to smile back.

“That’s good.” Hyoyeon smiled widely, but frowned. “But listen, I have to go to some meeting now, so I won’t be able to take you to places today.”

Sooyoung pouted, “But you tore up my map…”

Hyoyeon laughed at the cute pout. “Well, we’ll continue this tomorrow, so don’t go wandering without me, your map.”

Sooyoung softly giggled and nodded.

“Okay, I gotta go now. Will you be okay here? Do you know the way back?” Hyoyeon asked preparing to leave.

Sooyoung nodded, “Yeah, I just want to appreciate this a bit more, then I’ll head back to the dorms.”

“Okay, I’ll see ya tomorrow?” Hyoyeon asked. Sooyoung nodded and gave a small smile.

“Bye.” Hyoyeon waved and quickly sprinted to wherever she was going.

“Bye.” Sooyoung looked at Hyoyeon’s figure until she disappeared down the stairs.

“I’ve only been here for less than a few hours but I’m already starting to love it here. Taeyeon-unnie was right about this place.”

She sighed, stood up and headed towards the stairs to leave. Sooyoung thought her sister might probably be done with her meeting.

Under a tree, next to the gazebo:

A girl with light brown hair rose up from her slumber under a tree, hearing two voices move toward the gazebo.

“You were right. This place is perfect for me.” The awoken girl heard a voice say. This voice was very unfamiliar, but the second voice that replied to the first sounded like the Assistant Leader of the Passions.

She lifted herself up and peeked into the gazebo. She saw a girl with brown short hair, and she looked new, because she doesn’t recognize her face at all. She observed the girl and how she interacted with the blonde girl, who she was pretty sure was the AL of the Passions.

They hadn’t noticed her, because the gazebo had a small couch right behind it. The blonde was laying down so they hadn't noticed her. 

After the short-haired blonde left, she observed the short haired girl that was looking around. ‘She’s pretty.’ The unknown girl thought bitterly as she looked at Sooyoung.

She watched the tall girl leaving, as she disappeared, the unknown girl said, “Who is she?”